Cabbage steak might seem boring, but it’s actually holds rich flavour and a great texture. I knew as soon as I read the Cabbage Steak and ‘Tatoes recipe from The Vegan Stoner that it was exactly what I like in a recipe. A few ingredients and simple prep always make for a better experience preparing a meal, and usually in actually eating it. The results were just what I hoped for. I made some minor changes, including topping with garlic chili sauce, but I highly recommend looking at the original if only for the great design.

In olden days, one of the worst punishments society could exact upon you was outlawing. It meant you were literally outside the law. You had no privileges, no protections, no rights. Anyone could just up and kill you without consequence. Being declared no-stat was a lot like that. Without stat, Sherman’s family would lose everything. Their house. The right to wear current fashions. To see the latest movies. To vote. And I could lose stat of my own just by being friends with a no-stat person.

Vandal Doughnuts opened across the street from me a while back, but it wasn’t until recently that I knew they had vegan options. Today I decided to try the three flavours they had available. The Homer D’ohnut was by far the best, but they were all good.

When playing Zombies, Run! I often find myself sympathizing more with New Canton than Able. Re-running season 2, episode 4, “We Used To Be Friends”, I was reminded why when Nadia Al Hanaki says the following:

“From each according to her ability, to each according to her needs.” You ever heard that? It’s what Karl Marx used to say. Funny, that stuff wasn’t too popular before Day Zero, was it? Collectivism, socialism. They were about as fashionable as bell bottoms and digital watches. But suddenly it all makes sense. [snorts] Not digital watches, obviously. Those will always be stupid. But pulling together, looking out for each other. If we can’t do that, there’s no hope for us. That’s what New Canton’s all about.

During a break between seasons, the Offshore podcast, an excellent long form podcast that presents stories from Hawaii, put out some smaller episodes. In November they released “The Tiki Bar“, an eye-opening exploration of the complex weirdness of the Tiki fad. Paola Mardo presented the intersection of appropriation, immigrant opportunities, pop culture and race in an immersive and insightful way. For Paola it’s part of a larger project investigating Tiki bars and that engagement with the subject is clear.

Over the last several months, I’ve spent a lot of time around tiki bars – reading, researching, interviewing and trying everything from a Mai Tai to a Bayanihan. This is the first episode of a podcast about our fascination with the South Pacific island dream and the pop culture phenomenon of tiki bars, where race, culture, cocktails, and Hollywood collide. Click here for more on this ongoing project.

This journey started when I came across a photo of Filipinos and other people of color lined up for a movie casting call in 1929, as well as photos of Ray Buhen, a Filipino immigrant who worked at various tiki bars in Los Angeles including Don the Beachcomber, the original tiki bar that opened in 1934, and the Christian’s Hut on Catalina Island, a tropical-themed bar financed by Clark Gable to satiate cast and crew members during the filming of Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935. Buhen is also founder of the Tiki-Ti, the longest-running family-owned tiki bar in Los Angeles, the birthplace of tiki culture.